# System Design & Architecture Standards

> Universal architectural standards for building robust, scalable, and maintainable systems.

- Skill: `mte90/system-design-architecture-standards` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add mte90/system-design-architecture-standards`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/mte90/system-design-architecture-standards/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: mte90 (https://skillmd.com/u/mte90)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/mte90/system-design-architecture-standards

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# System Design & Architecture Standards

## **Priority: P0 (FOUNDATIONAL)**

## Architectural Principles

- **SoC**: Divide into distinct sections per concern.
- **SSOT**: One source, reference elsewhere.
- **Fail Fast**: Fail visibly when errors occur.
- **Graceful Degradation**: Core functional even if secondary fails.

## Modularity & Coupling

- **High Cohesion**: Related functionality in one module.
- **Loose Coupling**: Use interfaces for communication.
- **DI**: Inject dependencies, don't hardcode.

## Common Patterns

- **Layered**: Presentation → Logic → Data.
- **Event-Driven**: Async communication between decoupled components.
- **Clean/Hexagonal**: Core logic independent of frameworks.
- **Statelessness**: Favor stateless for scaling/testing.

## Distributed Systems

- **CAP**: Trade-off Consistency/Availability/Partition tolerance.
- **Idempotency**: Operations repeatable without side effects.
- **Circuit Breaker**: Fail fast on failing services.
- **Eventual Consistency**: Design for async data sync.

## Documentation & Evolution

- **Design Docs**: Write specs before major implementations.
- **Versioning**: Version APIs/schemas for backward compatibility.
- **Extensibility**: Use Strategy/Factory for future changes.